Here's an interesting website, sent to me by my lovely German friend Mirjam, an early years pedagogy expert from Berlin: http://www.ane.de/homepage-english.html
Apparently in Berlin parents get 'letters for parents' for free for their first child. Mirjam says that they are very useful for 'non-pedagogic' parents because they describe daily situations and give good tips without lecturing parents. Parents get 46 letters covering daily life with your child, kindergarden and school, plus there are others available about 'special topics' such as the family during puberty, and bilingual German-Turkish letters to help immigrant families.
Part of the work of ANE is the network for intercultural communication, and my favourite statement on their webpage for this is that 'Unlike common parent education concepts, parents are understood as experts at parenting and at democratically living with children'.
This is something that I think could be taken on board more in the UK - parents should not be undervalued and spoken down to by the people put in place to provide family support. Parents are experts at parenting, and like all the best experts in every field they work hard to keep their skills and their knowledge current and up to date.
